


for what it's worth, you are the closest thing to love; imagine how we collide in trouble but shine on for a thousand years

by ObliqueOptimism



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Not Beta Read, Soulmate Name Written on Skin, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28887972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliqueOptimism/pseuds/ObliqueOptimism
Summary: Dave hadn’t ever dated. Not properly. He’d thought some about girls and realized they weren’t for him, he’d thought about boys and hoped his soulmate was a boy. He didn’t know much about his soulmate, only the first name, written into his skin on his left thigh.Number 00.04
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz
Comments: 42
Kudos: 263





	for what it's worth, you are the closest thing to love; imagine how we collide in trouble but shine on for a thousand years

**Author's Note:**

> yo like y'all i've been working on this short fic for a while now i'm so sorry i've been away but with everything happening atm for me like i don't have time to write and when i do i don't have the energy but one day i'll write more bakery au and others i promise, s'the plan anyway, just be patient please? and forgive me for y'know, all that stuff?
> 
> anyway thanks to penn and others who put up with me as i wrote this, y'all are great and wonderful and this wouldn't be finished without you

It was different for everyone; of course it was, they were so personal after all. Your soulmate name was written into your skin, their first name, imprinted somewhere when born. A few people had more than one name, different places, different styles. Some were written in their veins, close to the skin and easily read, some were written in close knit freckles and spelling out the name, some were splotches of extra or less skin pigment and was always a different color than the surrounding skin.

It wasn’t uncommon to date people who weren’t your soulmate, either you were passing time or getting experience at what being in a relationship was like; two people who had already lost their soulmate or given up on finding them settling for love but not true love; people who knew that just because the other person was your soulmate didn’t mean you always got along having seen how their mated parents were and how unhappy they were even though media made it seem like soulmates shouldn’t ever fight. 

Dave hadn’t ever dated. Not properly. He’d thought some about girls and realized they weren’t for him, he’d thought about boys and hoped his soulmate was a boy. He didn’t know much about his soulmate, only the first name, written into his skin on his left thigh.

_Number 00.04_

He’d wondered how his soulmate had come upon that name. Were his parents in a cult? A weird religious type? Did they have a lot of kids and decided to just number them? Or maybe he was given to an orphanage and for whatever reason they just named him there? He wondered what it would be like to grow up with a name like that and he hoped that Number 00.04 didn’t mind Dave’s name and how normal it was. 

One thing Dave had always thought was a good thing about his soulmate’s strange name was that he’d know when they met. He’d heard of soulmates who thought that maybe they mated with the wrong person. Yes, the names matched but what if they found the wrong Karen? Who happened to have the name Chad on her skin but it was the wrong Karen and Chad? And how often did people start to fall for an Elizabeth before it came out that Elizabeth’s soulmate was Phil and not Paul as Paul had hoped? 

Dave didn’t have to worry about that with his soulmate named Number 00.04. 

He was lucky. 

He’d know his soulmate when they met. 

Dave had wondered over the years what Number 00.04 might go as. Obviously on Number 00.04 it would say _David_ and not Dave. Would Number 00.04 go by Number? Four? Or just Number Four? Did he make people say Number Zero Zero Point Oh Four? N-4? Dave kept an eye out for anyone going by any variation of Number 00.04. 

Year after year and no Number 00.04 ever came in his life. 

Dave wondered if Number 00.04 always looked up when someone said four or for or fore like he did. He was on the lookout for his soulmate. Call Dave a hopeless romantic but he wanted to meet Number 00.04 and treat him right. Better than the cult orphanage that named him. 

“That Number Four will be blessed to have you as their soulmate,” his mom often told him after he told her his plans. He wanted to take Number 00.04 out on dates and buy him flowers and go stargazing and find out all of his hobbies and try them out alongside Number 00.04 and find out his favorite foods and make them and hold him close and cherish him and treat him right.

Growing up Dave always said four was his lucky number, his favorite. He never explained to most why he said this, his family knew, some of his close friends knew. 

It's not that his life revolved around Number 00.04, he didn’t want Number 00.04 to think he was some strange obsessed guy when they met, but with such a strange name and that it was written into his skin--

Well.

No one could fault him for saying four was his favorite number. That was his soulmate after all.

He couldn’t wait to meet Number 00.04.

_Then he met Klaus._

Klaus’s soulmate was David. _Not Dave_. A different David. Dave knew this because Klaus liked to go around shirtless and David’s name was on the lower half of Klaus’s left ribs.

It also explained why Klaus kept giving Dave looks. The first one was when they met, and understandably so. But Dave didn’t react to hearing the name Klaus and Klaus wilted. 

But Klaus was _special_ and Dave found himself wishing that Number 00.04 was like Klaus. Brave, smart, funny, kind, loyal. He also would day dream about dating Klaus, unsure if he’d ever meet Number 00.04. Klaus filled his mind more and more and Dave felt guilty at how often he thought of Klaus instead of his soulmate.

Logically Dave knew it wasn’t _wrong_ to think of someone other than his soulmate but after so many years of looking for Number 00.04 it felt almost like betrayal. But Dave couldn’t pull himself away from Klaus, couldn’t keep him at arm’s length. The way he felt about Klaus was what he’d read in cheap romance novels about soulmates.

But Klaus wasn’t his soulmate.

Number 00.04 was.

Dave idly wondered if he was actually one of those people who had two names on his body, Number 00.04 and Klaus. But parents, doctors, papers from when he was born all state that he only had one name.

One number.

Number 00.04.

When people were born the parents of the baby as well as the doctors made notes of any names found on the newborn. Everyone knew the name of their soulmate, even if you couldn’t see the name yourself. Someone else would have told you. 

Someone would have told Dave if he had a second name hidden on his body. 

But what if--

What if there was a _Klaus_ that was missed? In his hair maybe? He tried to think of places to check for names, places that could have been missed.

Maybe he could actually be Klaus’s _David_ and maybe Dave had two soulmates.

But--

“Dave, where did your hair go? Did you lose it in a firefight?”

“Uh,” Dave scratched at the back of his head, his hair shorn as close as he could without shaving it completely, “just felt like something different.”

Klaus walked up with a smirk and a spring in his step, reaching out he petted the top of Dave’s head, “Well that’s one way to get the dirt and lice out, right babe?” Klaus cackled and Dave smiled softly. “I bet it feels nice, cooler in his fucking heat, huh? But Dave dear, aren’t you worried about sunburn? God, your shoulders are already like lobsters.” His hand then moved and gently patted Dave’s red shoulders, which had started to peel. 

Dave winced at the touch on his burn. Klaus’s lips twitched and then he leaned forward slowly and he looked up through his lashes as he gently blew on Dave’s skin where he’d just patted. “All better now,” Klaus whispered.

Klaus’s name had not been hidden by his hair.

Dave wondered if he had been grasping at straws.

He’d cut off his hair to see if Klaus was a second soulmate of his. To see if he could be Klaus’s _David_. To see if he had a reason for how he felt about Klaus.

Alas.

Dave only had one soulmate, Number 00.04.

One day he’d find him, but probably not for a while. Not while in Vietnam. It wasn’t like Number 00.04 was going to suddenly appear in the Sky Soldiers. 

“How about you Katz? You got your ‘mate at home, waiting for you?” Raleigh asked. The group had all been talking about home, what they wanted to do when they got back, who they wanted to see, who was waiting for them.

“Nah, haven’t met mine yet,” Dave shrugged. 

“Well lets hope you get the chance,” Henry commented.

“Jesus, Hen,” Klaus cursed, “way to make it dark.” 

Henry shrugged. He’d been right. Just because you _had_ a soulmate didn’t mean you’d manage to meet them. Who knew where they were in the world, and it wasn’t unknown for people to die before they’d met their soulmate.

Dave really wanted to meet Number 00.04 someday.

“You’re one to talk, Hargreeves. _Make it dark._ You’re such a spooky fucker.”

Klaus stuck his tongue out at Henry. Henry flipped him off with a smirk.

“And you, Spook? You got a special someone waiting for you?” Raleigh asked.

Klaus shrugged and took a deep drag on his joint, “Ah my ‘mate has another and obviously chose them over me. Probably scared him away, eh Hen? Horrified of having this hot mess love him?” He gestured to himself with a cackle. 

“Thought you hadn’t met your _David_ yet?” Dave asked.

Klaus locked eyes with him and let out a sigh, “With how much I love my _David_ and how he hasn’t hit this? Nah. He may be my ‘mate but he’s got another and made his choice.” Taking another drag, he added, “A smart choice.”

Dave watched as Klaus flicked the ashes off and turned to leave, waving with his GOODBYE hand.

“Well fuck, Dave,” Henry said. “Why you gotta have two soulmates. That poor sad sack.”

“What?” Dave took his eyes off where Klaus had disappeared to and glared at Henry.

“C’mon. You gotta be his _David._ Fucker’s in love with you. You got two names? Prefer some Juliana you’ve never met over Klaus?”

Dave narrowed his eyes, “I only have one name. And it isn’t _Juliana_ or _Klaus._ So don’t go thinking I’m playing him or anything. I’d be fine if I was his _David_ but our names don’t match. So kindly fuck off.” He got up and walked towards where Klaus had disappeared.

He found Klaus laying on the ground, looking at the stars. Dave sat down next to him. The noises of the jungle and the war making itself known. Yelling, bombs, firefights, mines, tigers, birds, bugs, things that hunted in the dark and things that fucked in the dark. But then Dave decided he’d heard enough of that and spoke up, “You really think you know _David_ and that he’s ashamed of you?”

Klaus turned over in the grass, his back now to the sky and his face in the dirt, “Why wouldn’t he be?”

_“Klaus,”_ Dave started, “you are _amazing_. If you really think _David_ is your soulmate he would be lucky to have you. I would never be ashamed of you. If _David_ actually is then he can go fuck a tiger for all I care. I know I wouldn’t choose someone else over you if I had two names.”

“You wouldn’t?” The sound was muffled, spoken into his pillowed arms.

“Hell no. I wish I _was_ your _David_. If you really do know him and he has chosen someone else? He’s not worth being your ‘mate.” 

Klaus turned again, this time to face Dave. “What if I thought you were my _David?”_ Klaus swallowed. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear this and I’ll ruin everything like always but the way I feel about you? _You have to be him._ You have to be!”

“Klaus--”

“I’ve never cared about anyone or anything like I do you!”

Dave couldn’t meet Klaus’s eyes, he looked down and saw Klaus’s hands shaking. He wanted to reach out and hold them, but that would be overstepping. He was a friend. _Just a friend._ “Klaus, I only have one name. I’ve checked and it isn’t-- _It isn't you.”_ Dave’s voice cracked at the last word. He wished it was Klaus. He wanted to be Klaus’s _David_ so much. “There is another _David_ out there who has to be your soulmate. You are too special to not have a matching name.”

Klaus scoffed and pushed himself up off the ground. He shook his head and walked away.

Dave let him.

It wasn’t his place.

He wasn’t Klaus’s soulmate.

He wasn’t Klaus’s _David._

Dave thought that after that night things would be a little tense between them. But other than finding Klaus higher than usual the next day things went back to normal. Or as normal as they could be after Klaus suggested that Dave was _ashamed_ of him and _didn’t_ want him. Every so often Klaus looked far away though, _heartbroken_. He’d shake his head and smile brighter than ever afterwards though.

It hurt, how Klaus was masking his pain.

Dave wished he could take it away.

But that was for a different _David_ to do.

About a week after Klaus had said that he thought Dave was _David_ , Dave walked into the tent and found Klaus with his briefcase in his lap and his things packed away. He was staring at the case, chewing on his bottom lip, deep in thought. Klaus’s head shot up when Dave stopped and stared.

“Klaus?”

“Why am I here?” Klaus’s voice shook. “If you _aren’t_ my _David_ or if you are and you still won’t-- you still don’t want me? _Why am I here?_ I was staying for you, y’know? Like, at first it was because of a few reasons but now? It was because of you. So stupid, staying in ‘Nam for a guy. Staying for my ‘mate makes sense but staying for some guy? My first friend? The first person who ever cared for me? The first person I love more than myself? It’s just _some guy?_ I can have some guy back home.”

“Klaus--”

“And like, I do miss home. I ever tell you I’m from the future? I miss it. I mean it wasn’t all that great but some parts were. The music, the fashion, gay rights, fucking not ‘Nam. Sure, it's pretty dangerous being a homeless junkie whore but no landmines. Much easier to get my hands on some eyeliner though. Plus just ran into my fam again. Turns out I missed those bitches. Can you believe that? Oh and what with my brother Five coming back--”

Dave felt his heart freeze, “Who?”

Klaus blinked slowly and looked up at Dave, as if he’d forgotten he’d been there. “My brother Five.”

“Is that short for something?” Dave felt like he was grasping at straws, “Like Fievel?”

Klaus snorted, “Yeah, it’s short for Number Five.”

Dave went to reach out but stopped himself. He swallowed nervously, “Number Five?”

“Dad numbered us,” Klaus whispered. 

Stumbling towards Klaus, Dave tried to keep his voice steady, “Are you Number Four?”

Klaus nodded slowly.

Dave reached out this time, not stopping himself. He gently caressed Klaus’s face and held it in his hand, _“It’s you.”_

“What?” Klaus looked up at him.

“My soulmate,” Dave said in awe. “The name I have isn’t _Klaus_ , it’s _Number Zero Zero Point Four.”_

“Oh my god,” Klaus gasped. “Oh my god, Dave.” He wrapped his hand around Dave’s wrist, _“Dave.”_

“You’re my _Number Four,”_ Dave smiled. “I’m your _David.”_

“You fucking have my number?” Klaus’s voice had an odd tone to it, as if he couldn’t believe it.

Dave stepped back and started to undo his pants. Klaus’s face scrunched in confusion but he didn’t try to stop Dave. Keeping his underwear up, Dave lowered his pants enough to show the name written into his skin on his upper thigh. 

_Number 00.04._

Klaus’s hand shook as he gently touched his name, “That’s me.”

“It’s you,” Dave agreed.  
Klaus quickly stood up, the briefcase falling to his side, whispering Dave’s name again, his lips pressed against Dave’s. Dave wrapped his arms around Klaus and pulled him closer. 

Klaus.

His soulmate.

His Number 00.04.

Klaus deepened the kiss and Dave let out a moan, so glad to have his _Klaus_ in his arms, finally found him, found his name on his body, by his side. 

And then Henry let out a wolf whistle, “Pants are already on the floor! I’d say put a sock on the door to let us know you’re busy in here but there aren’t any doors.” He laughed.

Klaus turned and let go of Dave for a moment. Grabbing his pillow from his bunk he threw it at Henry, “Fuck off!”

“Oh I’ll fuck off!” Henry made a rude gesture.

Dave felt himself blush at the implication and Klaus growled at him but Henry just turned and walked out, shouting something about them getting hot and heavy in the tent.

Dave took the time to quickly pull his pants back up, having forgotten he’d pulled them down to show his soulmate his name.

“Aw,” Klaus pouted, “you could’ve kept them down.”

“We’ll get to that soon enough probably but I don’t really want my first time with my soulmate to be when Henry walks in on us,” Dave said.

Klaus looked Dave up and down, giving him a hungry look, “Oh yeah? You pictured your first time with your ‘mate before?”

“Of course,” Dave said. “I’ve also thought about my first time with you.”

“Oh how romantic,” Klaus batted his eyes.

“Shut up,” Dave smiled, pulling Klaus against him again and kissing him. 

Klaus pulled back for a second, “Did these daydreams about me and your ‘mate have similarities?”

Dave felt himself blush again, “Well--”

Klaus let out a loud laugh and looked joyous and Dave wanted to make Klaus look that happy everyday of their lives together.

“Guess I’ll just have to make your dreams come true,” Klaus whispered in Dave’s ear.

And they did just that.

**Author's Note:**

> cowgaykermit @ tumblr


End file.
